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Friday, February 14, 2014

Winter's Tale

Review by Bob Ignizio

Although an Academy Award winner for
his A BEAUTIFUL MIND
screenplay, Akiva Goldsman has mainly written and produced mediocre
to downright awful films more likely to win Razzies than Oscar's. Now
he proves himself a true triple threat by not only writing and
producing WINTER'S TALE,
but directing it as well.

WINTER'S TALE
takes place in some sort of slightly skewed fantasy version New York
City, both in the 1900s and the present. An unseen female narrator
informs us with much gravity that we're all connected, everyone has a
miracle inside them, and friendship is magic. Okay, that last one is
'My Little Pony', but it's on a par with the rest of the metaphysical
philosophy spouted by the film.

Our
protagonist is Peter Lake (Colin Farrell), a skilled thief with a
good heart who, when he was a baby, was tossed him in a toy boat by
his parents so he could stay in New York City while they were
deported. Great plan, mom and dad. Peter got to live in New York,
alright, but he wound up being raised by Pearly Soames (Russell
Crowe), a ruthless gang leader who also happens to be a demon. Peter
doesn't want to work for his surrogate dad anymore, but as is often
the case with demons, Pearly isn't the sort to let anyone out of his
grasp. Luckily Peter finds a magical horse (who is apparently really
a dog) able to fly him away from danger and lead him to the doorstep
of the lovely Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay). Beverly is dying
of consumption, which in the finest LOVE STORY
tradition makes her all the more beautiful and desirable.

It's strongly
implied that Peter is destined to use his miracle (remember, everyone
has one) to save Beverly, something Soames hopes to prevent with the
help of someone called “The Judge” (Will Smith). I don't want to
spoil how this plays out, so let's just say we eventually encounter
Peter in the present day where he is suffering from amnesia. The plot
picks up from there, bringing in two new major characters in the form
of newspaper food writer Virginia Gameley (Jennifer Connelly) and her
daughter Abby (Ripley Sobo), who is dying of cancer.

Rife
with cliches and forced sentimentality, WINTERS TALE
feels like some hokey adolescent romantic fantasy brought to
cinematic life. In reality the film is based on a highly regarded
novel by Mark Helprin (which this reviewer has not read). So perhaps
the fault lies not with the source material but with Goldsman's
adaptation of it. It certainly wouldn't be the first work of
literature he's butchered, as fans of Isaac Asimov's short story
collection “I Robot” and Richard Matheson's novel 'I Am Legend'
can attest.

But
wherever the blame lies, taken strictly on its own terms WINTER'S
TALE is a trite and convoluted
film that tries way too hard to be the perfect Valentine's Day date
movie. It labors under the mistaken and patronizing belief that such
a goal is best accomplished by including plenty of action and
adventure for the guys and plenty of romance for the ladies.
Evidently the idea of just making a good movie didn't occur. 2 out of
4 stars.